The City of Portsmouth was awarded $19.3 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant funds to revitalize the High Street corridor within the newly established Innovation Overlay District.

The High Street corridor is a mixed-use thoroughfare that runs east/west through Downtown Portsmouth, the economic, cultural, and social heart of the City. High Street has been identified as an excellent candidate for a complete street conversion project because of the impact this corridor is expected to have on the community and the success of similar improvements to an adjacent section of the corridor.

This project will include a road diet by converting the existing four-lane undivided arterial to a two-lane divided road section with a 16-foot-wide raised median for approximately 1-mile allowing for road integration of vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users. 

The Complete High Street Innovation Corridor project focuses on High Street between the Martin Luther King Expressway (Route 164) and Chestnut Street and aims to extend the streetscape design of the Downtown area farther west and connect the area with opportunities to the east. The project will also be a redevelopment catalyst for the Innovation Overlay District around this corridor, which aims to regenerate an under-performing area into a desirable location for innovative and creative development.